Installing Ubuntu Server 8.04 with ssh

Posted on April 28, 2009 | Category: Server, Ubuntu

This post covers the installation of Ubuntu Server Edition 8.04 and a sneaky SSH trick for those attached to GUI. Version 8.04 was selected for a number of reasons. Unlike the GUI version of Ubuntu, the Server edition is supported for 5 years, versus the standard Long Term Support (LTS) of 3 years. I installed the Server Edition on a dual processor AMD unit with 2GB of RAM. The goal of the installation was to configure the box for remote access – like a server should be configured right!?

The first step is to download or torrent a copy of Ubuntu Server 8.04 from the Ubuntu web siteI always burn distros to CD/DVD at around 4x to ensure that the data are complete. Next, throw the media into a CD/DVD-ROM and restart your machine. Partition your drive however you want, but I recommend you create 3 partitions.

Create a home partition with a mount point of “/”, which is where Ubuntu Server will reside. Make the partition around 20GB. Next, create a Linux Swap partition double the size of your RAM. Lastly, the remainder of space on the drive will hold all of your server files and any other data you might have. There are a couple of main benefits to storing your web server and other documents on a completely separate partition. If you Server distro crashes or becomes corrupted, the web portion of your install is unaffected. Also, if you are hacked, the Server can easily be reinstalled without harm to your server files. Security, security…

After a successful installation, the first thing to do is install updates.

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get upgrade

You already have a VI text editor with the distro, so you are good from that perspective. Next, install your ssh.

sudo apt-get install openssh-server openssh-client

Now, you need to open up port 22 and 80 on UFW.

sudo ufw allow 22

sudo ufw allow 80

sudo ufw disable

sudo ufw enable

That should do it for the firewall unless you have other applications that use additional ports.

Open up terminal, or your command line environment, and type in

sudo ssh -X username@ip_address

Input the password for the username and there is your terminal. Now, just because you have a text-only interface, it does not mean that you cannot install GUI programs. Your next question – Why install GUI programs on a server if you cannot see them? My server has the DVD-R drive, whilst my Ubuntu GUI box does not. Also, I have an unsolvable network problem that prevents me from accessing certain pages on my web site within the network. What I have done is install firefox on my server, while using the graphics card on my GUI box to process the graphics.

Simply install firefox or other GUI program on your server, ssh into the terminal, and type in the program command. It should popup in your screen. Easy as pie!